U.S. higher education attracts many international graduate students—particularly those from China today where many of them become international teaching assistants (ITAs) in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, which not only benefits the students, but also our country as a whole. However, unfortunately, the issue of the ITAs' English proficiency, or what is known as “the ITA problem,” still lingers in many U.S. higher education classrooms as well. In order to tackle this issue, many studies have looked at ways to improve the ITAs’ spoken English competency where different types of ITA programs and university-required ITA training oral courses and tests were mandated. Most of the time, the focus was on the ITAs’ oral fluency, pronunciation, and methods of teaching in an American cultural classroom. However, unlike lecture classes, science lab settings often require more instances of direct exchanges of communication like question-and-answering rather than instructors simply lecturing in front of a class. Unlike many studies that looked at how well native English students understand their international instructors, the purpose of this study was to see the reverse, or how well Chinese ITAs understand their students’ utterances and questions. This study investigated two key factors:1) the effects of a shared Mandarin L1 (L1 being an individual’s first or native language) background between the ITA and student, and 2) the presence or absence of connected speech processes on the teaching assistants’ assessment of students’ intelligibility and comprehensibility (intelligibility being a measure of the accuracy of a listener’s transcription of a speaker’s utterance, and comprehensibility being the listener’s rating of the ease or difficulty in understanding a speaker’s utterance). 30 teaching assistants (15 Chinese Mandarin L1 and 15 native English L1 instructors) were each asked to perform two tasks: first, to test for the teaching assistants’ perceptions of student intelligibility, they were each asked to watch and listen to a unique set of 24 questions—12 asked by native speakers and 12 by nonnative speakers—and orthographically transcribe exactly what they heard; second, to test for the teaching assistants’ perceptions of student comprehensibility, each teaching assistant was asked to rate how difficult it was to understand the question on a Likert scale of 1 to 7. According to the research results, overall, a Mandarin shared L1 was significantly correlated to both the Chinese international teaching assistants and native English L1 teaching assistants’ perceptions of student intelligibility and comprehensibility. For both the ITAs and native English-speaking TAs (NSTAs), Mandarin speakers were most difficult to understand. However, for the ITAs, while the results showed the most errors made in the ITAs’ transcriptions for Mandarin speech compared to English L1 and other nonnative English speakers’ speech, their comprehensibility ratings for Mandarin speakers were higher than other nonnative English speakers. In others words, Chinese ITAs believed it was more challenging to understand other nonnative English speakers, such as Korean L1, Hindi L1, and Arabic L1 speakers, than Mandarin L1 speakers who had a shared L1 with the ITAs. With regards to the influence of connected speech processes on the teaching assistants’ perceptions of student intelligibility and comprehensibility, connected speech processes were also statistically significant for both Chinese ITAs and NSTAs.

<p> Second language acquisition can be defined as the process in which language learning occurs through the formal study of rules, patterns, and conventions which enable one to talk about and consciously or unconsciously apply the knowledge gained. Individual differences, along with linguistic input, play a key part in the process of second language acquisition. Studies such as the VILLA Project focus on the exposure conditions and the content of the input leading to initial contact in the process of second language acquisition. Participants&rsquo; individual differences in the categories of motivation and individual learning style for Francophone students served as the control variables, and the form-based versus meaning-based input as the experimental variable. In comparison to their German and Dutch counterparts, neither the Francophone meaning nor form based groups presented any significant results based on these specific individual differences in their acquisition of Polish in the word formation tasks. Further study should be conducted on other individual differences and their role in the acquisition process.</p><p>

First language in schools

Nannul and sabdamanidarpana

<p> <b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this study was to explore the language/literacy skills of at-risk adolescents. In addition, this study aimed to know more about at-risk adolescents&rsquo; perceptions, attitudes, and motivation about their language/literacy skills as well as their learning experiences. </p><p> <b>Method:</b> A mixed method design was conducted in this study. There were two phases to this study. Ten 18- to 19-year old at-risk adolescents participated in Phase 1, which included the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills, Perceived Language/Literacy Survey, Attitude Survey, and a Motivation Survey. Eight at-risk adolescents participated in Phase 2 including an educational conference and surveys. </p><p> <b>Results:</b> Thirty percent (3/10) of at-risk adolescents tested had a language/literacy disorder. There was a significant correlation between how at-risk adolescents perceived their language/literacy skills and their TILLS identification test score (X²(2) > = 4.286, <i> p</i> = 0.038). At-risk adolescents who answered the Attitude Survey about their learning experiences varied in how much they liked school, how much effort they put in to completing homework, and if they felt they were able to apply school experiences to a job. In general at-risk adolescents tended to prefer to learn kinesthetically, liked Language Arts, and disliked Math. In general, at-risk adolescents dreamed obtaining a professional job that required higher education. When asked about obstacles to their dreams, responses varied and included nothing, education, and finances. For those that participated in the educational conference, learning about their language/literacy did not significantly change their locus of control but significantly changed their interest in obtaining speech and language services. </p><p> <b>Discussion:</b> The language/literacy skills, attitudes, and motivation of at-risk adolescents who are identified as homeless varied. This adds to the current literature and support that some at-risk adolescents can benefit from speech and language services. Preliminary information about at-risk adolescents&rsquo; preferred learning modality is also introduced with these findings. A significant subset of adolescents have good awareness of their language/literacy skills supplementing that with more questions that probe the use of language/literacy skills, at-risk adolescents can accurately screen their own performance. </p><p> <b>Conclusion:</b> These findings support previous work suggesting that at-risk adolescents would benefit from speech-language services. Speech-language pathologists can play a critical role on teams with social workers and psychologists to help identify language/literacy skills of at-risk adolescents, which could subsequently impact their ability to plan, problem solve, overcome past experiences, obtain employment, and ultimately, live independently.</p><p>

abstract: Set in South Texas, the poems of “Before the Body” address the border, not of place, but in between people. Following a narrative arc from a grandfather who spoke another language—silence—to a young boy who drowns in silence, these poems are expressions of the speaker’s search for intimacy in language: what words intend themselves to be, what language means to be. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Creative Writing 2015

abstract: The Shuowen jiezi 說文解字 [Explaining depictions of reality and analyzing graphs of words] (100 AD), written by Xu Shen 許慎of Eastern Han dynasty, is known as the first comprehensive dictionary for Chinese characters. However, the earliest complete edition of the Shuowen available today is the Songkanben 宋刊本 (Woodblock printed edition from the Song dynasty). As a result, Songkanben is employed as the primary source in most studies on the Shuowen conducted by scholars after the Song dynasty. In 1982, the discovery of Tangxieben Shuowen mubu canjuan 唐寫本說文木部殘卷 (The incomplete juan under wood classifier of the Shuowen written in manuscript form in the Tang), shed light on a new angle of view in examining the Shuowen, mostly developed from Songkanben. In this paper, after an introduction on the Songkanben by Xu brothers, as well as the discovery and dating of the incomplete manuscript form of Shuowen from Tang, a comparative study between the Songkanben and Tangxieben of the Shuowen from five aspects: order of entries, the appearance of the Small Seal script of a few entries, the explanation of the meaning of some characters, the graphic analyze and the fanqie 反切 phonetic notation for some entries. The hypothesis presented in this thesis is that Tangxieben, with its antiquarian value, advantages and features, though not older for sure, may belong to an older tradition. And it suggests that there is a scholarship of the Shuowen during the Tang. And Xiao Xuben 小徐本by Xu Kai 徐鍇 (920-74), from some specific aspects in the comparison, tends to be closer to Tangxieben compared with Da Xuben 大徐本by Xu Xuan 徐鉉 (917-92). Consequently, as the original text of the Shuowen is not available today and what we have studied on the Shuowen basically is based on the editions by Xu brothers, it would be reasonable to keep this in mind, and refer to different editions of the Shuowen and critically examine them in philological studies related to it when apply and study the Shuowen nowadays. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Asian Languages and Civilizations 2017

Abstract not available

A collection of poetry / Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / Poetry / 2031-01-01

The United States has a long history of attempting to intervene or fix how families practice literacy together, with much less emphasis on honoring or understanding how families support literacy learning at home. This qualitative study employed a multiple-case design that examined teachers’ and caregivers’ efforts to bridge home and school literacies as they simultaneously engaged in an after-school family literacy program. Data were collected across a six-week family literacy project, Families Read, including classroom observations, Families Read meeting observations, and interviews with teachers and caregivers. Through a cross-case analysis the following key findings emerged: 1) teachers who participated in Families Read demonstrated broadened understandings of home literacy, 2) teachers’ connections to home literacy in their classroom were limited by the prescribed curriculum, 3) teacher/caregiver dyads developed stronger and improved communication and relationships, 4) caregivers who participated in Families Read described an increased willingness and comfort to participate in the classroom and at the school, and 5) caregivers described changes in the texts they read at home which included more informational books. Implications for practice, policy and research highlight strategies for teachers, schools, policymakers and researchers that support a two-way vision for connecting home and school literacies.